Germany’s Kiel Canal is expected to be reopened for shipping at midday (1100 GMT) this Tuesday after a major oil spillage was contained.
“The clean-up work in Brunsbüttel has progressed well,” Tobias Goldschmidt, environment minister for the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, said on Monday, referring to the town at the western entrance of the canal.
According to Goldschmidt, a spreading of the oil into the river Elbe and the North Sea, which would have caused an environmental catastrophe, was successfully prevented.
The canal was closed on December 21 after a leak in a pipeline caused large quantities of crude oil to escape. Teams of helpers joined the efforts to clear the spillage from embankments and harbour facilities, as well as locks and around ships.
The canal between Kiel on the Baltic Sea and Brunsbüttel at the mouth of the Elbe at the North Sea is considered the world’s busiest man-made sea waterway.